connexion with the Established Church. The parish church itself was calculated to hold 1200; and this was all the accommodation for so large a number.

Now God, looking down from his glorious throne on high, beheld these poor sheep in this spiritual wilderness; and in his great mercy and compassion He opened the eyes and hearts of some persons in the neighbourhood, who had considerable property, to see and feel the awful state these poor people were in for want of spiritual guides. A subscription, therefore, was opened, to build a church in the hamlet of S— -d, which place was once an unenclosed common, but at the period of which I am now writing it had been inclosed and built upon until the population there amounted to 1700. The subscription alone was too small to begin upon, and the circumstances of the case being made known, the Government assisted, and a sufficient sum was at length obtained for building the new church. The local subscriptions were appropriated to the erection of schools. Thus an efficient machinery was furnished, and only waited to be set in motion. The church is plainness itself. It has 700 sittings, and most of them are open and free. The situation of the church was considered a lonely spot, and rather wide of the most populous parts of the hamlet; but the ground was given, and it was thought economy to accept it. I cannot tell you who laid the first stone of the building; but this I hope and believe, that many in that place have been "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone."

At length the new church was built, and the day for consecration was fixed. And now, what was our duty as professing Christians and members of our venerable Establishment? Surely it was to pray that the Great Head of the Church would deign to give his blessing, and grant to the people a pastor after his own heart, to feed them with knowledge and understanding; and that many sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty might be born there; that He would condescend to dwell even in that earthly sanctuary; that there He would meet his people, to hear, instruct, and save them.

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Such, indeed, should have been our fervent des earnest prayer. But, alas! there is reason to fe such thoughts as these entered our minds. At tha we had no family prayers,-no family, no persona gion. No, careless, thoughtless, prayerless, we gled with the great congregation on that memorabl No doubt, however, hearts and hands were lifted for I verily believe two of our members did pray they left that holy place.

The prayers of our Church were read by the distinctly and feelingly; and the clergy of the n bourhood for many miles round attended. The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (Dr. Ryder) prea the sermon; and if ever "holiness to the Lord" s in the face of mortal man, it was resplendent t Never may I forget the tones of that persuasive v from which I first heard with attention the glad tid of Gospel grace, or the earnest manner with which urged upon us the necessity of an early attendance u the worship of God, that we might not lose any of portion which was provided for us. The pastor of new church being present, the bishop gave the peopl his charge, with a solemn injunction to be in season out of season; to feed the flock of God, which Hel purchased with his own blood; and to watch for so as one who must give account. The whole addr seemed indeed to sink deep into the pastor's heart, he stood to listen with a pale countenance and a gliste ing eye. At the conclusion of the sermon, the bish and the clergy received the Holy Sacrament. T churchyard was then consecrated, and notice given th there would henceforth be Divine Service in St. Pchurch every Sunday, in the morning and afternoo alternately. I ought to have mentioned before, that th bishop took his text from 1 Kings viii. 30, "Hear tho in heaven thy dwelling-place, and when thou heares forgive." Many of the people, as they were returnin home, spoke much of what had taken place, and "pon dered these things in their hearts." For my own part the events of that consecration-day have told, I trust with a salutary influence upon all my after-life. As to

others, I hope hereafter to tell of some who, by the Divine blessing, proved in the most satisfactory manner, that they received their spiritual life through the instruction given by the different pastors who in the providence of God have succeeded to the incumbency of the new church. S. B.

EXTRACT FROM MY FAMILY BIBLE.

MATTHEW Xviii. 1-7.

THE spirit of the disciples, my dear family, was as yet a fleshly and worldly spirit. Though they ask concerning rank in the kingdom of God, they meant not, in the glorious and peaceful resting-place of the spirits of just men made perfect, but that kingdom of worldly grandeur and splendour, which they expected Christ to found, and reign over, upon earth,-a kingdom, like those of mere ordinary kings, only more grand and powerful. The answer of our Lord must, indeed, have astonished them, and you may depend upon it, it does astonish hundreds and thousands of professing Christians at this day. Yea, more, it has the effect of turning them altogether away from the Gospel. They cannot bear it, it is altogether against the grain. Nothing worldly, all spiritual, it suits them not. To become as a little child, humble, meek, and willing to learn, to be converted or changed from their old ways; no, they cannot abide it. If this be Christ's religion, they must, indeed, live out of this world to follow it, and that they cannot do. The most they can say about taking to such a strange religion is, that at a more convenient season, when their worldly ties and interests do not stand so much in the way, they will think about it. But, my dear family, this conduct will never do, if Christ be the person He declared Himself to be; and that you and I profess to believe He is. Hear his words again-" Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." This is plain, and positive, delivered with all the authority of God. But born in sin, and inclined to sin every hour of our lives, having a natural horror of bearing the cross, of standing the laughter of a bad world for being in all

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respects different from it, we are of ourselves totally and entirely unable, to bring our hearts childlike state of faith in Christ, and that ch obedience to his commandments, which He re It is the work of the Holy Ghost; He, the third in the ever-glorious Trinity, must make the chang alone can root out our natural desire to consider w prosperity as the first and great concern, and ind to sit at the feet of Jesus, as little children, to lea humbling doctrines of our sad fall, and of our resto to the favour of God through the merits of a Sa who was despised and rejected of men, spit upo insultingly struck by the lowest of ruffians, and a put to death by the most disgraceful of all mean cross, the punishment of the worst of offenders. the Holy Ghost who must take away our natural sition to love the world and the things of the wor think ourselves wise, when, in truth, we are fool long as we know not Christ. Seeing, then, my family, that we cannot enter into the kingdom of he unless we be converted, and become as little chil let us pray for the Spirit, that our hearts may opened' that we may be quickened-that we may b into all truth-that we may have clean hearts, and spirits created in us that, finding ourselves wretc and miserable, and poor, and blind, and nakedthat without Christ we can do nothing-like the woman spoken of in Luke vii. 40-45, we may Jesus much, because He is the only way by w our sins, which are many, can be forgiven us. W we are thus renewed in the spirit of our minds, thus by the Spirit of Christ, when we are his, we may h that some among our now unconverted neighbor who shall hear the great things that the Spirit of Ch hath done for our souls, will repent and believe in c sequence; for they that receive us, will receive Chr Though we be little ones, helpless as children with our Father, yet have we his word for it, that having hu

1 Acts xvi. 13-15.

2 John vi. 63.

3 John xvi. 13.

bled ourselves, through his Spirit, to believe in Christ, we shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But, alas for them that shall despise the humility and seeming foolishness of the cross we rejoice to bear, and who shall endeavour to make us offend against Christ by their ridicule! Such we shall leave to be dealt with by our God and Saviour. Having prayed for their conversion with earnest desire, having done all to set Christ before them by our words and works, if they continue in unbelief, we must leave them to feel to their cost, that "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." A LAYMAN.

AN EXPLANATION OF SOME WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS IN

THE LITURGY,

WHICH MAY NOT BE UNDERSTOOD BY SOME, OR TAKEN IN A WRONG SENSE.

"Rend your heart, and not your garments," Joel ii. 13, which is one of the sentences read at the beginning of the service. Amongst the Jews, and in other eastern countries, it was a custom to tear their clothes as an outward expression of penitence, grief, or horror. The high priest rent his clothes" in token of horror, when he accused our Lord of speaking blasphemy. So the meaning is, Do not be satisfied with outward tokens of grief for your sins, but have real sorrow for them in your heart.

66

Sabaoth," in the 5th verse of the Te Deum, is sometimes misread Sabbath; but it is quite a different word both in spelling and meaning, it means the same as the "Lord of Hosts."

The word "confounded," in the last verse, means overwhelmed, destroyed. It is sometimes understood to mean eternal destuction.

In the Creed, which we commonly call the "Belief1," we say we believe Christ descended into hell. When we now speak of "hell" we always mean the place of punishment for the wicked with the devil; but the word

1 Creed means belief.